My research interests lie in that modern meeting and mingling of European and Asian religious cultures which has affected everything from philosophy and popular religious experience on both continents to social work and policy, political ideology, and ideas about mental and spiritual health. Following many months of archival research and field work in India, Europe, and the UK, and the successful examination of my thesis, I went to live in Japan from September 2004 on a Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Scholarship to begin comparative South Asia - Japan research alongside intensive language and journalistic training. I returned to the UK two years later, towards the end of 2006, to begin my current post at Edinburgh University, where I teach a range of courses on South Asia and Japan.

• Introduction


• 1: The Meaning of Uplift in Punjab


• 2: British Evangelicals vs Belgian Catholics: Two Christianities Take Root in Punjab


• 3: The Communication of Christianity


• 4: Living in New Traditions


• 5: Visions of the Future: the Canal Colonies and the Christian Village Experiment


• 6: Conclusion

Exploring the phenomenon of mass conversion to Christianity amongst oppressed rural peoples in late colonial India, Religious Transformation in South Asia looks at what lay behind the social and religious aspirations of converts and mission personnel.